The girl shrank back among her cushions. "But he must go?" she repeated, half to herself.
"I do not expect to hear of many more mill-fights in Morton Hollow," said Dane very calmly. "What is it, Gyda? Supper? Well, some of our friends here will be very glad of it."
There was porridge and cream and flad-brod, of course; there was hung beef and honey; altogether it was rather a sumptuous meal.
Rollo attended to the coffee on the hearth, and made the tea; as usual did half of the serving himself, and took care that his old nurse should not exert her strength beyond very gentle limits. They voted to disregard the table and keep their places round the fire. So in grand red illumination from the blaze they took their cups of coffee, which Dane filled from the pot on the hearth; and handled their plates of porridge and cream; and but for the night"s work in prospect, would have regarded it as a piece of grand fun. To the young men indeed that circ.u.mstance was not enough to make it any less than fun, and to one of them it was much more. Gyda, whose little black eyes watched them all keenly, found it a pleasant sight; for the smile on her old lips was as sweet as May.
Though indeed Gyda"s smile was quite wont to be that. She sat where Rollo placed her and suffered him to attend to her wants; but she said never a word unless spoken to.
It was still not far on in the evening when the supper was disposed of and the room was again in company order. The little circle gathered somewhat closer together. They had been talking gaily, yet something in the social atmosphere hindered conversation from the buoyancy natural to it in happy circ.u.mstances; it acted like a wreath of chimney smoke in a damp morning. In a pause which had come, no one knew why, Primrose remarked,
"I wish you would sing something, Duke."
"Why?"
"Why, because I like to hear you."
"Yes, do," said Dr. Arthur. "Prim"s nerves are sadly out of tune."
"I don"t think my nerves are ever out of tune," Prim answered gently.
"Not when they have work to do," said Rollo. "Nor ever at another time, that I know."
"But you can sing, if I don"t want tuning."
"Certainly. But in all questions that are not of duty, you have to consider the effect."
The lazy deliberateness with which this was spoken, was at least as provoking as it was comical. Wych Hazel from her place was silently watching them all, her eyes going from one speaker to the other with wide open consideration. Now, her lips just parted and curled and came back to their gravity.
"Go on?will you?" said Dr. Arthur,?"I have a perplexing question to decide before to-morrow; and it rather helps me to have somebody make a noise."
"If you would tell us the question, perhaps it would help us make a noise," said Dane with the same placid gravity.
"Profound!"?said Dr. Arthur. "Well?give us something in that line."
"What line?"
"Original and scientific observation."
"That"s your line. I was thinking?how would you define "a noise"?"
"Extraneous sounds come pretty near it, with me," said Dr. Arthur.
"But you wouldn"t call music "a noise," " said Primrose.
"Wouldn"t I!?When Miss Powder has wandered off alone to the Sands of Dee and doesn"t want to be interrupted!?"
"But what you would call a noise, isn"t music, Arthur. Now Hazel, I wish you would just sing one of your little songs and confound him!" Primrose spoke entreatingly.
"I should be more happy to be confounded?in that way?than I can tell," said the doctor.
"Thank you," Hazel answered laughing; "my songs are quite too small to do that for anybody. And besides, as I once heard somebody say,?"I was not asked first." "
"Your are asked to be the first," said Rollo.
"I remember one night at Newport?" Dr. Arthur began. Hazel interrupted him.
"You need not remember anything about Newport!"
"Need I not?" said the doctor smiling. "Agreed!?I like this much better. But one night when you were singing to Kitty Fisher, in her room, _she_ had secretly posted an ambush underneath the window.
It would be hard to forget those songs, or to cease wishing to hear them again."
"Kitty Fisher!?"
"You will certainly do for Prim what you would do for Kitty Fisher," remarked Rollo.
"I suspect I did it for myself then," said Hazel; and "for herself" was the way she liked best to sing. But if he wished it? So without more ado the song came. Not one of her gay little carols this time, but a wild Border lament; inimitably sweet, tender, and true. As effortless in the giving, as forgetful of auditors, as if she had been a veritable bird among the branches; for Wych Hazel always lost herself in her music.
Then more was called for, with a general soft shout. And then, by and by, as Wych Hazel sang, a soft rich accompaniment began to chime in with her notes. Those two had never sung together before; doubtless that was forgotten by neither; and it is not too much to say that the one voice came caressingly attending upon the other; playing around her notes with delicious skill, accompanying, supporting, contrasting, with a harmony as gracious as it was wilful; till at the close of a somewhat longer piece than usual there was a universal burst of applause. Small audiences are not generally wrought up to such a pitch; and when they had done they all sat and laughed at each other.
"Ah!" said Dr. Arthur, "I asked for a noise, and after all had to make it myself!"
They had got intoxicated with melody. They went on singing, of course. Various and diverse things, but for the most part of the deeper and thoughtful styles of music; sometimes together, sometimes alone. At last Gyda asked for a hymn. Rollo looked at Wych Hazel. The two spots of colour which had been burning in her cheeks, changed suddenly to a grave flush.
"That is for you," she said softly.
He waited a moment, and then sang,?
"Ein" feste Burg ist unser Gott"?
To hear Rollo sing a hymn, or any other song, was to have the meaning given with not less but more than speaking expression, and Wych Hazel"s winter studies had enabled her to follow the words. The listeners were all very still, and no applause followed.
But when the last line was ended, Rollo rose and announced that it was time to go. And soon as he and Arthur had left the cottage, Hazel sprang up.
"Mrs. Boerresen, which window best commands the Hollow?"
"You can"t see into the Hollow from any of "em, my lady."
"Where then?"
"You know there"s a bend in the Hollow, Hazel," Prim remarked.
"We cannot see into it from anywhere here."
Wych Hazel stood looking down into the burnt out fire, her hands knotted tight together. If she were but alone!?Could she in any possible way elude her companions and not be found out??
especially the first. Certainly she was a wayward creature, they might think. Five minutes ago listening to that hymn with the most quiet, subdued child"s face; and now fairly sparkling with energy and purpose. How could she manage? Prim was putting on her bonnet and shawl.
"It is not very cold," she remarked. "I am going as far as the top of the road."
Hazel glanced at the gray chair,?no, she could not disturb that.